In 1932, the U.S. physicist Carl D. Anderson encountered the unexpected tracks of a positron, a positively charged particle with the weight of an electron, with the help of a cloud chamber. This evidence of antimatter proved, that, in accordance with Einstein’s theory of relativity, every particle in the universe corresponds to an antiparticle with the inverse electrical charge. Anderson received the Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1936. However, only a few years later, the cloud chamber played an important role in a very different field of research: In the course of the Manhattan Project, cloud chambers were essential for research on implosions undertaken at Los Alamos, which led to the first explosion of a nuclear weapon in the 1945 Trinity Test.
The cloud chamber was invented in the early 20th century by the Scottish physicist Charles Thomson Rees Wilson and was used in experimental microphysics for particle visualization. While passing through the cloud in the chamber, charged particles leave fleeting traces that are visible. Based on these tracks, specific particles or types of radiation can be inferred. Building upon Wilson’s invention, devices like the bubble chamber were created, which capture particle movements such as those of cosmic radiation with the aid of photosensitive nuclear emulsions. In the meantime, cloud chambers are mainly used for illustrative purposes, because today researchers only use digital technologies for particle visualization.
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